The present invention relates to an information recording/reproducing apparatus and a data reproducing method thereof, for enabling an alternation process of a defective sector in the recording operation, which is called by “read modify write”, in particular, within recording onto an information recording medium, which enables recording with high density, such as, DVD, etc., as well as, an optical disk thereof, and in particular, it relates to a technology for achieving a reproducing process of an alternation block within such the apparatus.
An optical disk of being so-called a disc-like optical information recording medium, such as, DVD or the like, for example, is used widely as an information recording medium of being non-contact, a large memory capacity and a low cost, and also of enabling data access at high speed, for example, for the purpose of recording/reproducing digital audio data and/or digital video data, and further as an information recording medium for recording data of a personal computer.
In recent years, developments and researches are made actively, in particular, on the information recording medium, such as, DVD, etc., being characterized by high-density recording, and with such the information recording medium, i.e., the optical disk, there is defined an ECC (Error Correction Code) block by an assembly of a predetermined number of sector fields, for the purpose of securing a reliability of data recorded when recording the data on the recording surface thereof. However, in case when recording the data, which does not fulfill the ECC block, on such the information recording medium, readout to made on the ECC block, including a target sector field therein where the recording should be made, so as to substitute or alter write data from a host computer, for example, for the predetermined bytes of the target sector, and thereby recording them onto the original block, again. Such operation for recording is made by a unit of the sector field, and generally, it is called by “Read Modify Write”.
On the other hand, differing from such the recording operation that is called by the “Read Modify Write” mentioned above, however, the following Patent Document 1, for example, discloses therein a technology for conducting reproduction of the data area or region after reproduction of the sectors within an alternation area or region, under the regulation or standard of Mt. Rainer. Also, the following Patent Document 2 discloses therein a technology for seeking into a sector within the alternation region, so as to reproduce the data corresponding to the defective sectors, after reproducing the sectors of the data requested, from the top to the end, including the defective sectors therein. Further, the following Patent Document 3 discloses therein a technology for reproducing data of the alternation sectors to be written into a buffer RAM when mounting a disk, and for reproducing thereof but skipping the sectors alternated or substituted when reproducing the data therefrom.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-303345 (2004);
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-171603 (2004); and
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent No. 3254340